Students attend policy update
A group of Bennies and Johnnies visited the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to hear updates on global events.
The McCarthy Center sponsored former U.S. Foreign Service Officer Thomas Hanson’s visit to the University of Minnesota Twin cities campus last week Wednesday to give a U.S. foreign policy update on both global and domestic current events.
The event was hosted at the Coffman Memorial Union and was led by Global Minnesota, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect individuals, groups, organizations and communities to the rest of the world and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Hansen participated in the opening of new U.S. embassies in Mongolia and Estonia and has done countless projects for other international groups like NATO.
This event was attended by political science professors Pedro dos Santos and Christi Siver and current students who signed up to attend the event.
Dos Santos explained how he found out about the event and why he brought the opportunity to the students.
“It was the first time I was able to be a little more involved by bringing students into this event. I’m teaching international relations this year, and it would be a good opportunity for students taking that class or any other students that wanted to attend the event,” dos Santos said.
The McCarthy Center helped fund the event so students could get in for free and receive food after the event.
Numerous updates related to crucial issues were covered at this event, including the U.S. election.
“It was interesting to hear Hansen talk about the instability of the United States election and how it is one of the most pressing and worrisome issues to watch for this year. Nothing is surprising, but it is important to remind ourselves that our national elections have major repercussions all over the world,” dos Santos said.
Global elections were also addressed. At least 40 other elections worldwide are taking place in 2024. The war between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas were also discussed.
The COP28 conference was talked about briefly near the end of the update.
The event saw many perspectives from experts and has been put on by Global Minnesota for numerous years.
Dos Santos believes the event could be attended annually by students in the future.
“I hope to bring more students in every year. I’m hoping that this can be a partnership between the Political Science Department and the McCarthy Center. This can be a yearly thing where we can go down to the cities, or they have a hybrid option to watch it through video,” dos Santos said.
The Political Science Department hopes to bring more students to the event next year as they say it is educational, informative and exciting for the students that go. Students do not need to be a political science major or minor to attend these events. Pedro dos Santos hopes to become more involved with Global Minnesota and bring more students to other events put on by the organization.
One of the upcoming free events done by Global Minnesota will take place next Tuesday both virtually and in person. The event will be about rebuilding Ukraine, and one of the speakers will be former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. If interested, more information can be found on the Global Minnesota website.